Pesticide Exposure May Affect Fetuses.

WASHINGTON -- Children of migrant farmworkers who were exposed to pesticides in utero or through breast-feeding are at high. risk of developing associated health problems, according: to preliminary data presented by Maria A. Hernandez-Valero, Dr.P.H., at a meeting on cancer and the environment.

The findings suggest that physicians should. consider exposure to toxic chemicals as a possible cause of health problems in children or adults with a history of agricultural work or other exposures to dangerous chemicals, said Dr. Hernandez-Valero of the Center for Research on Minority Health at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston.

In a pilot study, the investigators studied 62 Mexican Americans-26 adults (8 men, 18 women) and 36 children (16 boys, 20 girls), ages 3-19--from migrant farmworker communities outside. Houston.

The study population consisted of seasonal workers who spend only 3 months a year working in the fields, as opposed to other migrant worker populations that do such work year-round, she said at the meeting, sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The researchers measured a panel of 21 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), including DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichioroethylene, a metabolite of DDT), Mirex, and Trans-nonachior. Serum OCP levels were correlated with data on occupational history and pesticide exposure, obtained using the Migrant Farmworker Questionnaire that was developed by the National Cancer Institute and the Farmworker Epidemiology Research Group.

The mean total serum OCP concentration was 17.0 parts per billion (ppb) in the adults and 2.6 ppb in the children. The children had measurable levels of DDE and Mirex. Only one child in the study did not have measurable OCP levels.

There are no data on OCP levels in the general population, she noted. The farmworkers in the pilot study had OCP levels that were higher than those previously measured in a comparison group of 1,200 individuals who were tested due to suspected pesticide exposure. That group had measurable levels of DDE (3.2 ppb) and nondetectable levels of Mirex ([less than] 0.3 ppb).